13 Minutes

Through the hole stat of the movie was nothing but degrading and racial degradation, funny, how 90% of the people that migrated to Minnesota didn’t believe in slavery. Woke America

I’ll be honest; Trace Adkins was the only reason I purchased this movie. I thought it was going to be a fairly decent movie. I was wrong. It’s a great movie. And I fell in love with ALL the cast members. I enjoyed the human interest storeys that follows the cast in their roles. The movie touches on a few hot topics/social issues which I think the script and actors addressed and acted well. Even with the strong storylines there is no over shadowing the fact the movie is about the devastation of a superstorm upon a small town, and it’s community. For me, the movie wasn’t to over the top, nor was it to slow or boring. (No “B” movie rating here!) The pace was just right for me, so all in all, I really enjoyed watching this movie and I’m glad I purchased it. I’ve watched it many times over, and enjoy each time I watch it. That’s the sign of a well made movie for me. Well done to all actors/cast members in front of the cameras and all behind the scenes (and behind the cameras). Not sure if there could be a follow up to this movie as Ann H. died after making it. (R.I.P.) I’d still like to see a follow up movie as each story line was left open ended and could be carried over to a follow up movie …. so maybe there’s still a chance (?) you never know! 🤞

I sat down to watch a good tornado movie. You know what I mean, there are tornados, things happen, people have to fight to survive, someone is doing something to make things better, etc. This isn't that movie. Unlike Twister or Into The Storm where there are interesting characters, an interesting premise, a good payout for your time, this movie is a total dumpster fire. Oh yeah, one more thing unlike those other movies - you won't even see a tornado until over 60 minutes into the movie - and I think the move is called 13 minutes because that is about the length of anything to do with a tornado in this movie. In fact, I don't even know why it's called thirteen minutes because if I had not seen the trailer I wouldn't even know that is how long most people get for a warning before a tornado. Not the weatherman from Twilight, Amy Smart (looking good for her age BTW) who is a county emergency manager, or anyone else says anything about 13 minutes. Sure, when the wind starts there are some interesting moments, and yeah I was interested to see who lived but even that is flawed. Why? Becuase this isn't a movie about tornados. It's a move about every single democratic talking point they think is wrong with america. We have it all - racism, biggotry, abortion, deadbeat dads, LGBTQ rights, illegal immigration, healthcare costs its all in there. In fact, all we do for about an hour is learn who the "bad guys" are and how they are "holding back" society. Also, unlike movies these days where they put in place a character or two with those topics in mind, this movie makes those topics (not the characters, the topics) center stage. IF there was a payoff that made sense I would potentially be able to overlook the fact that the writers wanted to make a political hit job in a cape acting like a disaster movie, but there isn't. Nothing really happens that makes me feel like there was a good pay off. Sure, the deadbeat dad get's left behind (good riddance) but that's about it. In fact, I don't even think any of the main characters died. Save your time and money (unless you want to watch a documentary on why you should have or did vote democrat from the prespective of the far left) and watch Twister or Into the Storm. This movie is a total disaster....

This is one of the strongest movies ever to depict the wrath of nature. Tornadoes are natures equivalent of an A-Bomb, leaving almost scorched earth behind. This movie depicts the lives of a number of families and how each cope before, during and after a horrific tornado. The film does an exceptional job with each segment. You should watch it to truly understand what really happened in our Midwest recently.

[this is actually 4.5 stars but, TLDR, you definitely need to watch this!] This was a really intense dramatic film with a horrific tornado as its centerpiece. It wasn’t a storm chaser saga, loaded with extra action and super-duper nerdity. Folks probably expected the latter and I prayed for the former. The characters in Twister were pretty one-dimensional with schmaltzy/groan-inducing action-flick dialogue in between all the scientific moments. While 13 Minutes wasn’t entirely without its scientists (need to have meteorologists and emergency management in there), it was still primarily about the experience of people “on the ground”, so to speak. These are the regular folk who didn’t see a storm of this nature coming, the ones who don’t watch the radar or hear the warnings until there’s only about 13 minutes left. (BTW, the title represents the average amount of time between when a tornado *warning* - not a watch, don’t get them confused - is issued and when a tornado actually hits a location within a warning area.) And this isn’t to say those folks are somehow irresponsible or ignorant. Maybe they’ve seen one too many tornado warnings amount to nothing or maybe they’re engrossed in significant aspects of their lives that prevent their full attention from being on the weather forecast. This is what happens. Where I’m from in New England, we definitely get our fair share of tornado warnings but most people ignore them because they rarely amount to anything. For many people everywhere, attention isn’t paid until the sky nearly turns black, the wind picks up, or - god forbid - they actually see a funnel cloud touch down and head toward them. Many of these characters are regular everyday people who didn’t really see it coming until they actually saw it - the tornado! - coming. And I really felt something for these characters. We were introduced to them and their trials and dreams, how their lives were interconnected, and we knew what they had to lose during that climactic storm. Maybe it’s because the landscape is still fresh in my mind but I could picture Oklahoma as I watched this film, just the way I saw it during a road trip six months ago, and it made the second half unmistakably real. All those documentaries and YouTube clips you may have seen about nightmarish EF4 or EF5 tornadoes in Joplin, Moore, Henryville, Washington, Tuscaloosa, etc, etc, weren’t ignored by these filmmakers. The images you saw in that second half didn’t look like they were filmed with a blue screen and plastic/styrofoam. It’s easy to be right there with these characters amidst the devastation and it’s hard not to find yourself emotional alongside them. Critics have been unnecessarily unkind about this film and I’m not going to reveal what they think here. Everyone needs to view this themselves and find their own opinion. I will only say there were a few imperfections in dialogue and acting that probably could have been left out of or fixed up for the final cut. That’s why I wouldn’t give this a perfect five stars because they’re noticeable enough. What I will do is advise you to watch the film for what it is, not what you want it to be. For those who loved Twister and wanted another Twister with better special effects, it’s definitely *not* Twister. The world in which these regular folks live isn’t like Twister - hint: many of them aren’t storm chasers or weather nerds - and the filmmakers successfully showed us that.